12.21.09
Pop Star Shakira Speaks to Oxford University Students
The Oxford Union is to play host to Colombian singer Shakira.
She has been invited to speak at the world-famous debating society, which has been running for 186 years, in front of Oxford University students.
The 32-year-old, who has won two Grammy Awards and seven Latin Grammy Awards, achieved international success with Whenever, Wherever and Hips Don’t Lie.
Shakira, a Unicef goodwill ambassador, created her own charitable foundation when she was 18. The Pies Descalzos Foundation, which provides education to Colombian children, has now set up five schools.
She will join the ranks of fellow speakers Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa, Michael Jackson, and the Dalai Lama when she addresses the union.
Colombian singer Shakira, whose hit “Hips Don’t Lie” is the most played record in American radio history, became a musical sensation and a global philanthropist because of her family’s bankruptcy when she was eight years old.
When the singer was 18, she founded the Barefoot Foundation, a charity to help poor children in her native Colombia get an education. Later, she expanded her reach to become a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.
And it all started when she had the rug pulled out from under her as a kid in Barranquilla, Colombia.
“I remember vividly the day which I entered our apartment and my dad had sold all the furniture we had, and the air-conditioning,” Shakira told CNN. “We lost both our cars.”
